Thinking Outside the Box
by CrlkSeasons
Summary: Why was Harry playing with a toy on the bridge at the beginning of the episode, Think Tank? This is also a Tom Paris, Harry Kim friendship story.


Thinking Outside the Box

For all the sterility of its uniform, modular stalls, the merchants' market at the Kdrazin colony had all the liveliness and noisy bustle of any outdoor market. The paths between the units were perfectly smooth and hygienically clean. But they were crowded with shoppers who jostled their way from display to display, snacking on aromatic spice sticks, exclaiming eagerly over bargains and savoring the guilty pleasure of each unnecessary purchase.

The crew of Voyager was in a rare holiday mood during this stopover. Neelix was in raptures over the fruits and vegetables he'd been able to procure. He'd also been lucky enough to find several new plant samples to add to the hydroponics bay. After completing his purchases he'd beamed back to the ship to oversee the arrival and storage of these treasures.

B'Elanna had already returned to the ship in order to test out some replacement units she had found. She carried a present that Tom had bought for her. It was wrapped in the local equivalent of discreet packaging. He'd only agreed to let her take it back to the ship after she solemnly promised not to open the package until could Tom join her later that evening.

Harry had been feeling low lately so B'Elanna encouraged Tom to stay at the market to keep him company. Harry and Tom spent the rest of their time wandering from stall to stall, enjoying discoveries of the familiar and of the exotic.

Then Harry found a display of resonating crystals at a music stall. Each crystal was individually tuned to produce beautiful melodies on themes from nature. The crystals were suspended at various heights from a fixed canopy overhead. Customers moved around inside the stall trying out the different musical poems. Harry was captivated. He spent over an hour listening to the melodic tones, trying to choose one crystal among the many available for purchase.

Tom listened to crystal after crystal until Harry narrowed his choice to four or five favorites. Finally Harry decided that Tom was not going to be of any further use in helping him to make his selection. Harry shooed Tom away to go and look over some of the other stalls while Harry finished making up his mind.

"You mean you want to give up the benefit of my musical expertise?" Tom asked, pretending to be amazed at the very idea.

"I'm positive that I'll manage just fine without _that_," Harry teased back,"Besides, I need peace and quiet so I can think. Why don't you go and play games at that stall we passed on the way here?"

"Are you sure? I don't mind waiting, you know."

"You talk too much. Go already." Harry gave Tom a friendly shove to get him moving.

Tom took a few steps and then stopped to search along the line of stalls for the one that had caught his attention earlier. It was not that far away. A wide counter stretched along the front of the stall with colorful and intricate puzzles scattered in piles at both ends. The space in the middle of the counter was left clear so that customers had room to try out the sample toys. Additional stock was arranged in eye pleasing displays on shelves at the back of the stall. A large merchant with the smile of a salesman stood in front of the counter trying to interest passers-by in a hexagonal shaped box covered with honeycombs of flashing lights.

"My friend," the merchant called out to one retreating back. "The Conundrum can be solved by those who are clever and wise. Try for yourself and you may win a prize."

Tom glanced back to make sure that Harry was okay, then walked over to the games stall to get a closer look at the puzzle that the merchant was attempting to promote.

In another corner of the Kdrazin market, Voyager's Captain had thoroughly enjoyed herself too. Although she didn't make any purchases, she delighted in uncovering tiny treasures in stall after stall. She was now preparing for a final tour of the market to gather up her remaining crewmembers before returning to the ship.

She found Harry soon enough. He seemed to be either examining or weighing the two crystals that he held in his hands. He held up one and then the other, switching back and forth in a classic pantomime of indecision.

"Captain, what do you think?" Harry asked when he spotted her. "The clear white crystal or the blue-green one? The white crystal makes a winter kind of song that reminds me of crisp, crackling snow. The blue-green has a more spring-like sound. It's like water rushing over rocks.

"They're both lovely, Harry. Which one do you like best?"

"Maybe I'd better get the one with the water music. Listening to snow just reminds me how cold I got the last time I went skiing with Tom on the holodeck."

"A wise choice," she approved. "Speaking of Tom, where is he?"

"Over there," Harry said, pointing down the path. "He wandered over that way to check out a stand that had puzzles and games for sale."

"It's almost time to head back to the ship. I'll see if he's ready to go. Join us when you've made your purchase."

"Yes, Ma'am."

Kathryn strolled through the lingering shoppers toward a large crowd gathered around one stall. They were shouting advice and encouragement to someone who was hidden from view. The crowd was too thick for her to see past it. But the design etched into the gray, dome-shaped canopy that arched overhead confirmed that this was indeed the stall that Harry had spoken about.

A large cheer burst out from the crowd, followed by a general bustle of activity. This seemed to signal the end of whatever it was that the crowd had been watching. Several from the outer edges of the crowd pushed forward, while others nearer the center squeezed back out. The circle of watchers began to disperse, most of them carrying small boxes covered with coral lights that flashed randomly across the many sides of these objects.

Finally, enough of the crowd had dissipated that she could make out Tom Paris standing in front of a counter, beaming proudly with one of the multi-faceted shapes in his hands. It was almost identical to the ones carried by the departing shoppers. The only difference was that all the buttons on his were a subdued blue. Standing next to Tom, a happy merchant was making sales to the remaining people from the crowd.

"Well," the Captain said when she reached them. "What's all this?"

"Honored Lady, may I interest you in purchasing a Cerebral Conundrum? This Honored Sir found the key to solve its mysteries. Surely a Lady of your dignity and intelligence can unravel the secret as well."

"Never mind, Zadril," Tom interrupted. "This 'Honored Lady' is my Captain. She can have mine, no charge."

"Ah, yes, of course." The merchant turned his attention to other potential customers.

"Yours?" The Captain asked Tom.

"I won it, Captain. That's what the sign here advertises." He pointed to a colorful poster written in the local script. "It says 'Try your luck. Unravel the mystery hidden in the Cerebral Conundrum and win one of your own. I won," he repeated helpfully.

"Congratulations," she said, smiling. "How did you figure it out?"

"Back in the twentieth century they had something like this, a cubic puzzle named after someone called 'Rubik', I think. For a while, it was quite popular, almost a craze. Everyone wanted to try it."

"This one works on the same principle?"

"Not exactly. This is more complicated. But I used the basic idea to help me work it out. It's like thinking with a twist. They had a lot of good ideas back in the twentieth century," he explained. "You just have to take the idea and see where it goes."

"You don't have to convince me," she told him. Unlike many people in Tom's past, she wasn't blind to the value of his unorthodox thinking and the way he was able to build on twentieth century technology to develop new ideas. She not only tolerated Tom's twentieth century interests, she encouraged them and Voyager had reaped many benefits.

"The puzzle is a lot of fun, Captain." Tom assured her. "Although I've got to say, Zadril," he said, addressing the merchant, "you have to do something about that name, 'Cerebral Conundrum' doesn't have much of a ring to it."

The merchant merely clasped his four thumbs together politely, and continued serving the last of his customers.

"Here, Captain," Tom said, "try this one." He reset the sequence so that coral lights began flickering over the blue buttons.

"Don't you want to hold on to your winnings?" she asked.

"It's okay. I was going to pass this one along to someone else so they could try it. If I give it to B'Elanna, it'll probably end up smashed against a bulkhead. Besides, I found something much better to give her," he confided. "I could give the puzzle to Harry," he continued thoughtfully. "But Harry already gets to play a lot of games. Voyager's Captain doesn't." Tom Paris' medical training combined with his family's background in Starfleet gave him a unique insight into how demanding a Captain's job could be. "Why should ensigns have all the fun?" he asked, keeping his voice light.

The Captain gave him a look to stop him there. But she accepted the puzzle. She turned it over in her hands, examining the seemingly random lights on the hexagonal faces.

The merchant finished with his sales. His interest perked up when he overheard the last part of their conversation. "You have many on your ship?" he asked Tom.

"A few," Tom answered cautiously. Even in friendly territory like the Kdrazin colony, it didn't pay to volunteer specific information about the ship.

"Then allow me to present you with two more puzzles to share with your shipmates."

"Thanks," Tom replied, rather startled by this unexpected offer from the merchant.

"That's very generous of you," the Captain commented in a neutral tone.

"Not at all," the merchant assured her. "Once your crewmember shares the Conundrum with his shipmates, I know that many of them will want to purchase one of their own." He leaned forward to whisper urgently, "Please tell me that your ship will be staying for at least one more day."

"We may need a bit more time to complete our business," she answered vaguely.

"May the fortunes be favorable!" was his reply. Then he turned to Tom. "I have sold my entire display stock. Give me a moment to retrieve more puzzles from the back storage area."

"No problem," Tom answered. Then he added, "That is, if you don't mind waiting, Captain?"

"Why don't you go and see if Harry is finished with his purchase? I'll stay here and wait for your puzzles," she offered.

"Sure thing, Captain," Tom replied and made his way back to the music stall.

Zadril returned a few minutes later with several puzzles. He placed two of them into a carrying bag and set this in front of the Captain. "Have you tried the Conundrum yet, Honored Captain?" he asked, indicating the one she held in her hands.

She examined the lights once more before answering with a question of her own. "Just how difficult is this puzzle?"

"It requires some ability to see a problem from a different perspective. Your crewmember must have a talent for solving unusual puzzles. I have had that sign up for several seasons. This is only the second time that someone has won."

The Captain smiled to herself as she recalled some of Voyager's own experiences with Tom's unique perspective. Among other things, Tom's version of creative problem solving had given Voyager a solution to the nacelle problem for the warp ten flight, a carburetor inspired device for a space-folding engine, and a hot-rod based design for the multi-functional Delta Flyer. "Tom does bring a perspective of his own to problem solving," the Captain told Zadril. "We call it 'thinking outside the box'."

"We have a similar expression," he explained. "My people say that if you always sit inside a box, you will never see the light of the new day." The merchant leaned closer to confide to the Captain. "I have to admit, when your crewmember first attempted to solve the Cerebral Conundrum, I did not expect much success, especially since members of your species only have one thumb on each hand. However once he began, he made the game seem like so much fun that he attracted a larger crowd than I've had all season. I sold more merchandise in one business session than I usually sell in twenty-four. I am sure that I could surpass my record for sales if your ship only stayed in orbit long enough."

Voyager's Captain wasn't surprised. Tom had a knack for sharing his enthusiasms and getting people involved in novel activities. It led to results as wide ranging as the large number of people that he got involved in the recent 'yo-yo' craze all the way to the diverse team that he pulled together to design and build the Delta Flyer, in record time. "You're probably right," she agreed.

Harry and Tom walked up to join them. Harry was carrying a bundle wrapped in soft cloth. It was larger than the Captain expected.

"All set, gentlemen?" she asked.

"Sorry for the delay, Captain," Harry answered. "I found a deeper blue crystal that had a warmer sound, like waves lapping along the shore. It kind of reminded me of summers at the seaside back home."

"Is that the one that you ended up buying?"

"I couldn't decide," he admitted. "So I bought that one and the blue-green one too. I'll put one away to give to my mom when we get home." Harry smiled a bit sadly, knowing that it could be many years before that happened.

"I'm sure that she'll love it," the Captain assured him gently.

"Come on, Harry," Tom spoke up. "Why don't you try the puzzle that I solved?"

"What's all this that Tom's been telling me about solving some kind of local puzzle?" Harry asked the Captain.

"Apparently he has a knack for them," she explained.

"Here you go, Harry," Tom said, taking one of the extra puzzles out of the carrying bag and giving it to Harry.

"Personally, I think this is just another example of your sheer lunacy," Harry teased Tom.

"That's it! That's exactly what it is. 'Sheer Lunacy.' That's a great name, Harry." Tom smiled broadly at the merchant. "If anyone from my ship asks you for 'Sheer Lunacy', you'll know what they mean."

"I will remember," Zadril promised, "and you can tell them that I will deduct two zdaki from the price for any crewmate of yours who wishes to purchase one."

By this time Harry was engaged in examining the lights on the sides of the puzzle. Tom smiled in satisfaction at having been able to divert Harry's attention away from his homesickness. Tom freed Harry's purchases from the crook of Harry's arm and added them to the single puzzle remaining in his carrying bag.

"I think we're ready to go now, gentlemen," the Captain announced. "Thank you for your generosity," she told the merchant.

"It was my profit and pleasure, Honored Captain," he replied politely.

Tom pulled the strap of his bag over one shoulder and joined the Captain. "I'll drop this last puzzle off in the mess hall for the rest of the crew to try," he told her. They started away from the stall, then stopped when they realized that Harry hadn't moved yet. He was too engrossed in the puzzle in his hands, testing the buttons, searching for patterns. Tom raised an eyebrow. The Captain smiled and nodded back toward Harry.

"Come on Harry," Tom called out. "It's time to go."

"I'm coming," Harry answered, still not moving.

Tom walked around behind Harry and placed both hands on Harry's shoulders. "It can't be that hard if you've solved it," Harry said, looking back at Tom.

"Whatever," Tom answered. "Tell me again how easy it is _after_ you solve it." Tom steered Harry in the direction of the path that led to the beam up point. Harry shuffled along, fully occupied with Sheer Lunacy.

The Captain shook her head in resignation. She recognized the signs. Sheer Lunacy would be all over the ship by the end of the day. But it was worth it if it helped others on the crew the way it was helping Harry with his latest bout of homesickness. She started checking over the lights on the puzzle that she still held in her own hands then checked herself. It wouldn't do for Voyager's Captain to be caught playing with toys in public. She eyed the buttons then stopped herself once more. She'd wait until she got back to her ready room.

"Thanks for letting me try out your games, Zadril," Tom called back to the merchant. "I had a lot of fun."

"Come back again," the merchant replied. "Bring your friends," he added hopefully and waved both of his second thumbs in the Kdrazin gesture of farewell and good luck.

The End

Author's notes:

1) The Captain mentions Tom's involvement in the yo-yo craze at the beginning of the episode, Think Tank.


End file.
